Kitchen pricing in Seconds for Selco Builders’ Warehouse

Integrating ArtiCAD-Pro with Microsoft Dynamics at one of the UK’s fastest growing builders’ warehouses.
Integrating the ArtiCAD-Pro design package with Selco’s Microsoft Dynamics NAV software has reduced the time it takes to produce a kitchen quotation in any of this leading builders’ warehouse stores to just a few seconds.  Errors have been eliminated and a wealth of management information is now immediately available.

From its origins as a timber merchant in 1895, and with just three warehouses in 1986, Selco began to expand into the Midlands and South West.  In 1998, the company was acquired by Grafton Group plc, fuelling further growth and the expansion of Selco into London and the North West.  Selco now has twenty eight stores across England and Wales.  The self-select, trade-only stores have more than 15,000 products under one roof, and most are open from 6am until 8pm, ensuring that Selco can meet the needs of its principal customer, the independent, local builder.

Selco supplies a selection of kitchen products as part of its customer offering, including both rigid and flat-pack units.  For a number of years, the Selco stores have used stand-alone versions of ArtiCAD-Pro as the means of producing designs, plans and photorealistic pictures of a customer’s proposed kitchen.

Mark Hunter joined Selco some eighteen months ago as Head of IT.  At the heart of the IT operation is the Microsoft Dynamics NAV suite (previously known as Navision) which runs across a Citrix network and handles virtually every aspect of Selco’s business including stock control, tills, pricing, reordering and ledgers.

The integration project
The relevant product information is extracted from Microsoft Dynamics NAV (at the head office), loaded into ArtiCAD-Pro and made available to the stores via Citrix.  The design and all its components are produced, as normal, using ArtiCAD-Pro.  The final, agreed design is then returned to Microsoft Dynamics NAV for pricing.  Mark Hunter:  “Whereas the pricing operation used to take up to 20 minutes, it is now done – with 100% accuracy - in just seconds.  By the time the customer has walked from the kitchen section of the store, having agreed the design, the full quote is ready at the till. ArtiCAD has worked very well during the project and has been very good at turning around work in short periods of time. The new integrated system works well, and is providing the stores with exactly what they need in order to sell as quickly, easily and efficiently as possible.”

Notes for Editors

Founded in 1992, ArtiCAD Limited has been, and continues to be, solely focused on the development and marketing of innovative, robust computer-aided sales tools for the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom industry. The company has more than 3,000 users of ArtiCAD in the UK alone. ArtiCAD Limited is headquartered in the UK, with subsidiary companies in Ireland and North America.

The company has gained a strong reputation for its in-depth understanding of the KBB industry, its innovative software, responsiveness to client needs, regular product upgrades, extensive portfolio of support services and lowest cost of ownership.

For further information, please contact:

Theresa Turner
ArtiCAD Ltd
York House, Wolsey Business Park, Watford
Hertfordshire, England, WD18 9BL
Tel   +44 (0)1923 888101  
Fax +44 (0)1923 888096
web http://www.articad.cc